A woodworking utensil including two guide rails and an alignment device for a woodworking tool are shown. A method using the alignment device to align the guide rails is also disclosed.
Guide rails are used to guide woodworking tools, such as circular saws, routers, jigsaws, and the like, in a straight line, allowing increased accuracy and ease of use of the woodworking tools. The guide rails are generally constructed of aluminum and include a substantially flat bottom surface that rests on the workpiece in use and include one or more tool base guiding tracks on a top surface to engage with one or more channels in a base of the woodworking tool being guided. The tool base guiding tracks have provisions to accept accessories, such as clamps, stops, and connectors. In a case that the workpiece is longer than the length of a single guide rail, two or more guide rails have to be connected end-to-end. Although connectors for securing the guide rails together are available, the connectors can not insure that the guide rails are connected in a straight line. In use, it is difficult to connect guide rails together in a straight line.
Thus, a need exists for a novel alignment device for insuring alignment of two guide rails connected end-to-end and for a novel method for reliably aligning the guide rails.